IP authentication, etc

[espositoj@att.net]

As a publisher myself, I can easily sympathize with JSTOR's concern that
the authentication techniques of some academic libraries are being
subverted by nasty pirates, but I wonder about the scope of this problem.  
A "darknet"--an underground file-sharing network a la Napster, Limewire,
whatever--for academic journals seems to me to be highly improbable.  
Content is destiny:  the folks who actually want to read serious research
papers just ain't the crowd that is trying to bring the music industry to
its knees.  My own experience as a publisher, who has had more courtroom
battles over copyright than I care to count, is that piracy is a matter of
sociology, not technology.  Whether you publish in print or digital media,
you won't get pirated in France; you won't get ripped off by American
corporations; but you will have big trouble in Asia outside of Japan.  
You will certainly, almost as a birthright, be ripped off by American
consumers, the younger the more likely--which brings up the question of
what content is being purloined.  Let's see now:  after I download Pink
Floyd and the Beastie Boys, I will wrap my hard drive around the Journal
of Neurophysiology or (and I feel truly wicked even to suggest this) the
New York Review of Books.

While isolated cases of piracy of academic materials can and do occur, as
a purely economic matter, this is the least of a publisher's problems.  
Even if one researcher at Georgetown steals a copy of a specialized
journal, it is preposterous to suggest that the Georgetown library will
participate in a piracy ring--and it's the libraries that actually buy the
stuff.

Now, as to that other matter, walk-ins at libraries, there is no place in
hell cold enough, etc., etc.

Joe Esposito
CEO
SRI Consulting